


Tug

by Moonsault



Series: Heaven & Hell [11]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Episode Tag, Friendship/Love, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 22:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13200180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsault/pseuds/Moonsault
Summary: Sami watches Kevin sleep after his victory over AJ Styles.





	Tug

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I've decided to keep going on these snippets until Wrestlemania and then wrap up there, just to pick an arbitrary stopping point!

The champagne bottle was sitting on the hotel dresser, still unopened. One of Kevin’s dirty socks was draped over it. On the television an Animal Planet documentary about octopi was playing.

Sami fished a chunk of spicy tofu out of its container and nibbled at it. “Ain’t no party like a Kevin and Sami party,” he said. “Right, Kev?”

Kevin said nothing, but then Sami hadn’t expected him to. He was lying on his back on the bed with his eyes closed, arms and legs spread out like a starfish, mouth slightly open. 

Sami put his takeout carton aside and drew his knees up to his chin, looking at him. 

When Sami couldn’t sleep--which was more often than Kevin knew, more often than Sami would ever admit to him--he liked to watch Kevin. The way his chest rose and fell with his steady breathing. The shadows his eyelashes cast on his cheeks, how they trembled when he dreamed. The first few times they’d shared a room after Hell in a Cell, Kevin had slept on his side, curled up defensively, frowning slightly. But little by little, almost imperceptibly, he’d relaxed. Now sometimes he even smiled in his sleep: a sweet, tremulous smile that made Sami’s heart turn over. Right now, he was snoring just a little, tiny snorts at the end of each inhalation. 

He’d looked so sad when he couldn’t pin AJ tonight. Sami wrapped his arms around his knees, hugging himself close and remembering the emotion that had dragged him closer to Kevin at the sight of that face. For years he’d resisted it, the awful imperative tug of Kevin’s misery, the need to soothe it away. How many times backstage had he caught himself about to head to the ring, to help and to comfort? How often had he despised himself for it?

At the end of a particularly loud snort, Kevin’s mouth snapped shut into a frown and he shook his head in his sleep, mumbling under his breath. “Ssmm,” he said, the end of it lifting into something like panic. “Nnn.”

Sami was next to him in a moment, touching his forehead, trying to smooth away the crease of alarm. “Shh,” he said, feeling relief deep inside him. “I’m here.” He didn’t need to resist that pull anymore, the tides and the currents of his own heart. He touched his lips to Kevin’s brow, and Kevin sighed.

_You don’t know what he’s dreaming,_ a small, calm voice inside Sami’s head said.

_I don’t care,_ he answered it, and lay down next to Kevin to take him in his arms, as close as magnets locking shut once more, the current between them strong and steady and unbroken.


End file.
